Tension mounts as both sides go on the offensive over UUP rule changes

Tensions continue to mount within the Ulster Unionist Party over the leadership's proposals to formally break the party's link with the Orange Order, and to restrict the voting influence of the Young Unionists. While party members opposed to the Belfast Agreement agitate against changes, the former UUP minister, Mr Sam Foster, has called for a "root-and-branch" overhaul of party structures to end the current "grotesquely anomalous" situation.

Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, the UUP MP for Lagan Valley, has already warned the party leader, Mr David Trimble, against proceeding with such change in the current political climate. And now the Young Unionists have stated that Mr Trimble risks "tearing the Ulster Unionist Party apart" by such reform.

The Orange Order has 120 votes and the Young Unionists 34 on the 860-member Ulster Unionist Council, the ruling body for the UUP. The liberal element of the UUP argues that most of these votes are anti-Belfast Agreement and do not reflect the general view within the party.

They contended that if the Orange Order and the Young Unionists were denied these block votes Mr Trimble would have comprehensively defeated the Rev Martin Smyth in the recent leadership challenge. He won with 57 per cent of the vote against Mr Smyth's 43 per cent.

Dr Philip Weir, chairman of the Young Unionists, warned against such reform, however. "To claim that removing the youth wing would assist in modernising the party is an indefensible argument. It would not be in the short-term interests of the party, and only serve to stabilise David Trimble's short-term position and placate unreformed republicanism," he said.

Dr Weir said his group would resist and defeat any attempt by Mr Trimble to limit the influence of the Young Unionists.

"We won the argument within the council that the Royal Ulster Constabulary was worthy of our support. David Trimble was beaten then and on plans to neuter the Young Unionist Council we will beat him again, probably more convincingly," he added.

However, Mr Foster said the party's structures should be radically and urgently overhauled in favour of a one-member-one-vote system.

He said he had been a proud member of the Orange Order for 50 years but believed it was time to break the formal connection with the UUP. Equally, it was anomalous that the Young Unionists should be allowed 34 votes on the Ulster Unionist Council, while others had to work their way through the UUP party system.

Mr Foster said it was also important that those who broke party rules and "tried to kick the leader, David Trimble, into touch all the time" should be penalised.

He cited the "grotesque anomaly" of the Union First and Assembly member, Mr Peter Weir, who, while he had lost the party whip in the Assembly, was still chosen by the North Down constituency association to contest the seat for the UUP in the next general election.

"The whole thing is entirely crazy. If a member loses the party whip they should be excluded from all elements of the party," Mr Foster said.

It also defied political common sense that Mr Denis Watson, a United Unionist Assembly party member and senior figure in the Orange Order who had reportedly joined the DUP, could be a member of the Ulster Unionist Council and influence its decision-making.

Meanwhile, the former SDLP minister, Mr Sean Farren, has criticised senior Sinn Fein figures for restricting blame for the collapse of the Assembly and Executive to the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and the Ulster Unionist Party, in weekend Easter commemoration speeches.

It was essential that, rather than constantly laying the blame on others, all the pro-agreement parties move together to rescue the Belfast Agreement. The focus should be on co-operation to restore the institutions, he said in a statement.

"The continuing republican appeal for everyone else but them to move if our political institutions are to be re-established is beginning to sound hollow. Given the factors which contributed to the suspension of the Executive it is completely disingenuous to argue that fault was completely one-sided," Mr Farren added.

Mr Alex Kane, a UUP researcher, called on the IRA to declare that its war was over. "Isn't it about time that the IRA stopped blaming everyone else for their own failure to face up to political reality? I don't seek surrender but I do need certainty that the shadow of the gunman will not continue to hover over democratic institutions," he said.

"Why can't the IRA offer that certainty? And why can't they realise that their refusal to offer it is the very thing which makes it impossible for pro-agreement unionists to take any more risks?" Mr Kane asked.